The FCC Wireline Bureau released an order Friday clarifying the USF/ICC Transformation Order and modifying some initial filing deadlines. The order amended section 54.318(d) to clarify that support reductions associated with the Universal Service rate floor will offset frozen CAF Phase I support only to the extent that the frozen CAF Phase I support replaced high-cost loop support and high-cost model support (http://xrl.us/bmq567). The order also clarified that, in implementing the new intercarrier compensation for VoIP regime adopted in the USF Order, when a carrier’s intrastate access rate is lower than its corresponding interstate access rate, the carrier may not include a rate for toll VoIP-PSTN traffic in its intrastate tariff that is higher than its intrastate access rate. The clarification order is helpful because it facilitates to a degree the states’ work evaluating various intrastate tariffs that deal with wholesale carrier access rates for VoIP traffic, a state official said. It’s one of the many clarification orders that the FCC is expected to issue as the agency deals with several pending reconsideration petitions of its USF order, he said. However, the core issues involved in the pending federal appeals of the USF Order aren’t being undermined by the clarification orders, he said.
Consolidated Communications agreed to buy SureWest for $341 million in cash and stock, the companies said. The deal gives Consolidated SureWest’s 130,000 residential subscribers and 15,700 commercial businesses in the greater Sacramento and Kansas City areas. The combined companies will have about 1,775 employees. The move came less than two weeks after an analyst said Google could buy SureWest to boost its fiber initiatives. Consolidated will pay $23 per SureWest share, or an equal amount of Consolidated common stock. The per-share price represented a 47 percent premium to SureWest’s Friday closing stock price. The deal is expected to save $25 million in operating cost and $5 million to $10 million in capital expenditure, the companies said. Consolidated expects to incur merger and integration costs, excluding closing costs, of around $20 million to $25 million over the first two years after closing.
NARUC’s telecom committee passed its resolution on VoIP outage reporting requirements at its winter meeting Monday. But the risk of VoIP service outages doesn’t justify the burden on VoIP providers to report outages to the FCC, industry officials said at a committee meeting Sunday. Meanwhile, the 1996 Telecom Act is “growing long in the tooth” and there would be heavy discussions about what comes next over the next year, said Michael Powell, head of the National Cable Telecom Association, during a general session Monday.
The amount of Universal Service Fund support Gila River Telecommunications receives is expected to fall by $1.6 million in 2012, compared to the previous year, as a result of new USF rules approved in October, representatives of the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) said in a meeting at the FCC. “Such a loss of support could have a detrimental effect on the pricing and/or level of telecommunications services in the GRIC and [the company’s] ongoing efforts to deploy fiber-to-the home and businesses,” Gila River said in a filing at the commission (http://xrl.us/bmqbxg). “Such an impact is contrary to the public interest.”
The FCC approved an order Tuesday rewriting the rules for the Universal Service Fund Lifeline program. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn found aspects of the order lacking, but both voted to approve the order as a whole. McDowell dissented in part and concurred in part. Clyburn issued a concurrence on one part of the order.
Broadband pilots, proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as part of a revamped Lifeline program, have emerged as a likely bone of contention at the agency as work on the order continues prior to a vote Tuesday. The amount proposed by Genachowski is small -- in the $20 million range -- to be paid for by savings as the FCC clamps down on abuse, agency officials said. But some industry and FCC officials question the wisdom of looking at ways of expanding a program that is already getting bigger just paying for traditional phone service.
Work at the FCC is intensifying on changing the Lifeline program that funds phone service for poor people, commissioners from both parties said Friday. A new draft of the Lifeline order circulated Tuesday night, prompting Commissioner Robert McDowell to return to Washington from a World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva, he noted. Both McDowell and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told a panel at the Minority Media and Telecom Council conference that the order tries to address waste and other inefficiencies in the subsidy program. Clyburn voiced support for the idea of broadband pilot tests, while McDowell said increases in one part of the Universal Service Fund mean all phone customers must pay more in USF fees unless there are other cuts.
The FCC ought to make sure it gets the most “'bang for the buck'” from any Universal Service Fund support of broadband pilot projects, the NCTA said. “To do this, the Commission should give preference to Lifeline pilot proposals that do not conflict with existing broadband initiatives focused on low-income populations.” The agency has said “unconstrained growth” of USF hurts consumers, so it “must make every effort to use support in the most efficient manner possible,” an association executive reported telling a Wireline Bureau official. An ex parte filing was posted Wednesday to docket 11-42 (http://xrl.us/bmpv5z). Commissioners are set to vote Jan. 31 on a order about controlling the size of the Lifeline fund (CD Jan 25 p1).
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden said Wednesday he’s watching FCC actions closely as the commission moves forward on a Lifeline order, slated for a vote at the Jan. 31 meeting. Meanwhile, AT&T said in a filing that the record shows most Lifeline customers forced to de-enroll from the program continue to pay for service afterward.
The FCC’s questions about adding filing obligations drew no support, in reply comments on a public notice asking about requiring all filings to include all cited material. Initial comments also opposed expanding the rules (CD Jan 11 p10). The Blooston, Mordkofsky communications law firm “concurs with the commenters in the record of this proceeding who have unanimously agreed that the Commission’s proposal, while meritorious in theory, will be unworkable in practice,” it said (http://xrl.us/bmpoye). “The Commission’s proposal, while well-meaning, will impose significant burdens on the public and practitioners and have a deleterious effect on the Commission’s ability to obtain quality input from the public during its public comment cycles. Currently, when commenters rely on data and other sources of information in support of their comments, the practice is to cite that information for support so that the reader can locate the original document for further review if necessary.” The Universal Service for America Coalition backed the CTIA’s request for FCC staff to make public promptly all analyses they rely on in making decisions. The coalition pointed to the Wireline Bureau making a Universal Service Fund study public shortly before commissioners voted on a USF order. The group “agrees with the near universal sentiment of commenters in this proceeding” on filing rules “that docket participants should not be required to submit all non-record material cited in filings into the record,” it said (http://xrl.us/bmpo2g). “Such a requirement is unnecessarily burdensome and would not significantly increase the ability of the public to access information.” Coalition members include Mobi PCS, SouthernLinc Wireless and Thumb Cellular, its attorney Todd Daubert of SNR Denton told us. Replies were posted Tuesday in docket 10-44.